A French MP will stand down after it was discovered that she had spent thousands of euros on designer clothes and restaurants.
Coralie Dubost, who serves in Emmanuel Macron's La République en Marche party, will not stand for re-election later this year after the revelations came to light.
The 39-year-old was found to have racked up "monthly clothing expenses within a range of 1,500 to 2,000 euros" as well as "very high restaurant costs" , according to a Mediapart report.
In October 2018 she spent €3,300 on clothing and accessories "on online sales sites such as Private Sale, Place of Trends or Private Showroom".
The following month expenses receipts showed she had bought €2,500 of products at high-end stores including Sézane and The Kooples.
In 2018 Ms Dubost also "used more than €500 of public money on lingerie brands".
The French MP said that she had used her expenses allowance to buy the clothes, explaining that she only wore them in work settings.
On the topic of the lingerie, Ms Dubost said that she'd used the expenses allowance as a kind of "cash advance" because she did not have her credit card with her.
According to Le Monde, at the start of 2019 she ended up taking out a bank loan to cover an overdraft of €7,000.
Following the reports Ms Dubost kept her silence for two days, before she released a statement at the beginning of this week.
“For the past few days, my person has been the target of unfair attacks, which do a disservice to my political group, the electoral deadlines and more generally democracy," she said.
"So the time has come for me to withdraw from political life and devote myself to my family. I will not be a candidate for my re-election."
French MPs are entitled to an expense fund of €5,733 which is supposed to cover the running of their offices.
A new system of expenses has been introduced under Macron's rule due to a series of revelations about MPs.
In scenes echoing the UK's expenses scandals, some members were found to have billed the tax payer for holidays and televisions.
One MP ended up paying €47,299 back to parliament.
